AMERICANEXPERIENCE: Freedom Riders

Airs Tuesday, June 17, 2014 at 8 p.m. on KPBSTV

Credit: Courtesy of Corbis

Above: Freedom Riders hang posters from a bus. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives — and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment — for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

In 1961, segregation seemed to have an overwhelming grip on American society. Many states violently enforced the policy, while the federal government, under the Kennedy administration, remained indifferent, preoccupied with matters abroad.

Above: Members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Washington, DC as they prepare for their journey south. Left to right: Edward Blankenheim, James Farmer (Co-founder and National Director of CORE), Genevieve Hughes Houghton, the Reverend B. Elton Cox and Henry "Hank" Thomas.

Retracing the Rides

That is, until an integrated band of college students—many of whom were the first in their families to attend a university—decided, en masse, to risk everything and buy a ticket on a Greyhound bus bound for the Deep South.

Gaining impressive access to influential figures on both sides of the issue, Nelson chronicles a chapter of American history that stands as an astonishing testament to the accomplishment of youth and what can result from the incredible combination of personal conviction and the courage to organize against all odds.

"The people that took a seat on these buses, that went to jail in Jackson, that went to Parchman, they were never the same. We had moments there to learn, to teach each other the way of nonviolence, the way of love, the way of peace. The Freedom Ride created an unbelievable sense: Yes, we will make it. Yes, we will survive. And that nothing, but nothing, was going to stop this movement," recalls Congressman John Lewis, one of the original Riders.

Says filmmaker Stanley Nelson: "The lesson of the Freedom Rides is that great change can come from a few small steps taken by courageous people. And that sometimes to do any great thing, it's important that we step out alone."

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Trailer: American Experience: Freedom Riders

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Above: From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives — and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment — for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Veteran filmmaker Stanley Nelson’s inspirational documentary, "Freedom Riders," is the first feature-length film about this courageous band of civil-rights activists.

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Video Excerpt: Freedom Riders: The Movement

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Above: The Freedom Riders represented a cross-section of America – black and white, young and old, religious and secular. "The Freedom Rides were trying to say to America: we are a diverse country — let's act like a diverse country, where every part of the diversity is equal, and is treated equally,” says Freedom Rider Rabbi Israel Dresner. Learn more about he documentary "Freedom Riders."

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Video Excerpt: Freedom Riders: The Turning Point

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Above: The state of Mississippi's plan to bankrupt CORE backfired when, on August 14, 1961, all but nine of the Freedom Riders returned to Jackson for their arraignment.

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Video Excerpt: Freedom Riders: The Young Witness

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Above: Janie Forsyth McKinney was twelve years old when the Freedom Riders came through her hometown of Anniston, Alabama, on May 14, 1961. After local Klan members firebombed the bus, McKinney assisted injured riders.

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C.T. Vivian On the Kennedys' response to the Freedom Rides

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Gov. John Patterson

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Above: John Patterson, Governor of Alabama from 1958 to 1963, won election as a staunch segregationist. Patterson discusses his response to the Freedom Rides and his decision to refuse a phone call from President John F. Kennedy when the Freedom Riders encountered mob violence in Birmingham.